Thursday, May 9, 2013

Artists add luster around town

Inspired Cincinnati is The Enquirer's project on people who are working to make this a better place for all of us. They work in the arts, community service, their own businesses. They all believe you can create something new, exciting and fresh in Cincinnati.

Claire Brayson and Katie Ferncez are full-time painters with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, a non-profit aimed at promoting beautification, recycling, and community pride. They were working at 13th and Vine, creating a faux front for a building that has yet to be renovated. They said their work is rarely vandalized. Each front takes about four hours to create and paint. / The Enquirer/Liz Dufour

Finding Inspiration

Claire Bryson: I go to the Contemporary Art Museum. I like seeing what other people in the community are doing, too. Things people are making. I get inspired by buildings, too. Katie Ferncez: Just looking around. Walking around Over-the-Rhine. I am inspired by life in general. I surround myself with creative people. I’m even in a knitting group.

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It happens fast. Claire Bryson and Katie Ferncez drive up in their van and get straight to work. They start with some measurements, apply tape, break out the rollers and start painting.

Within a few hours, an abandoned building, already boarded up by the city, goes from an an eyesore to a storefront. At least the appearance of a storefront. There are windows and doors and awnings and flower beds. But it is all just paint.

This is the work of Future Blooms, a project of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. The idea is to beautify a neighborhood while it is in transition. This encourages continued development.

Bryson and Ferncez have been painting storefronts on the plywood covering abandoned buildings full time for two years. They have storefronts on many buildings in Over-the-Rhine and now work extensively in Bond Hill, Lower Price Hill, Walnut Hills, Evanston and Avondale.

“You can make an impact in such a short period of time, for a reasonable amount of money,” Bryson said. “It’s instant impact.”

To date, Future Blooms has painted 552 buildings. Their work is more than just a coat of paint, however. It is about real change. Bryson and Ferncez keep track of data from the blocks on which they have painted new fronts.

They monitor the number of garbage bags filled by the Hamilton County sheriff’s community service work details. After buildings get painted, people are less likely to pollute there.

Their work also reduces crime. On streets where the storefronts have been painted, the calls for service to the police have decreased: from 5,241 in 2009 to 3,979 in 2011. It seems, perhaps, that a fresh coat of paint can show that people care about a neighborhood and that the future is going to be better.

The concept is called “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.”

In this application, making a building look better is proof that somebody thinks a neighborhood has value. That can be enough to encourage people to act better.

“It says somebody cares,” said Cincinnati Police Officer Tim Eppstein, part of the Neighborhood Liaison Unit in Over-the-Rhine. “It is not just paint, it shows progress. It shows a future. People are less likely to commit a crime on a block that is getting better.”

Which is what keeps Bryson and Ferncez coming back every day.

Bryson, 26, has a master’s in architecture from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Ferncez, 25, has a bachelor’s in interior design from DAAP. Both are thrilled to be driving a van and wearing paint-splattered clothes to work.

“We are making a real difference, and we do it every day,” Ferncez said. “I don’t know a lot of other jobs like that. And I love the people we work with.”

Ferncez’s parents have come to see the value in her work. They have, at least, stopped sending her notes about job openings in interior design. Bryson’s parents have actually helped them paint.

“My mother is an art teacher,” Bryson said. “She thinks this is the best job ever.”

And it works. Of the 552 buildings that have been treated, 98 are now in some stage of development – nearly 18 percent. Considering that the city does not board a building until it is abandoned and a nuisance, that is an encouraging number.

Now Future Blooms is spending more time on abandoned lots, which become garbage dumps and crime centers. First they clean them and green them. Then they plant trees and put up a picket fence.

These are artistic solutions to real-world problems. They do not cost a lot of money, and they make the city a better place to live. Bryson and Ferncez are always encouraged by how much people in the neighborhoods appreciate what they are doing and understand their mission.

They remember one boy who attended a day care center near Findlay Market when they were working on a building right next door. Ferncez and Bryson stopped by a few times to figure out the best solution for an abandoned building. Then they did some work one day and returned to finish it the next. The children were fascinated by what these two women were doing.

“Each morning they would walk past us holding hands, we called it the happy parade,” Ferncez said. “Then, when we were finishing, one boy said, ‘Oh, I see, you are making this into a home.’ He totally got what we were doing. He cut right through it and saw what we do.”■